- Title: ISRAEL-DEAD SEA/SINKHOLES Receding Dead Sea leaves a trail of perilous sinkholes
- Date: 29th July 2015
- Summary: MINERAL BEACH, ISRAEL (JULY 28, 2015) (REUTERS) VIEW OF DEAD SEA COAST CLOSE OF SALT ACCUMULATED IN SEA FRAME READING 'THE LOWEST PLACE IN THE WORLD' AT MINERAL BEACH WIDE OF SINKHOLES VIEW OF SIGN READING 'SINKHOLES! FORBIDDEN TO APPROACH!' VIEW OF SINKHOLE VIEW OF ROW OF CARAVANS THAT COLLAPSED IN SINKHOLES CARAVAN WITH SIGN READING 'MASSAGE ROOM' THAT COLLAPSED VIEW OF
- Embargoed: 13th August 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA3SUFQ8RNV9FK1KEFEFQXMZHE2
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A neglected grove of date palms, their leaves long fallen, trunks drooping in the searing heat at the lowest point on earth, is the latest casualty of an odd phenomenon wreaking havoc along the coast of the Dead Sea - sinkholes.
The workers who tended the date grove stopped coming, fearing the earth might swallow them up.
The Dead Sea is shrinking, and as its waters disappear at an alarming rate of more than one metre a year, hundreds of sinkholes, some the size of a basketball court, some two stories deep, are devouring land where the shoreline once stood.
The date trees line a section of a two-lane desert road - a main north-south artery that cuts through Israel and the Palestinian West Bank - that was shut down six months ago when a gaping hole opened up beneath the asphalt.
Once a rarity, a few hundred new sinkholes are now appearing each year, and the rate is only expected to increase. Officials have not come up with a figure for the extent of the damage, but power lines have been downed, caravans engulfed, and bungalows and a cafe at two popular beaches were recently closed.
"The problems that it caused, the Dead Sea declining it's caused alot of ecological problems, the sinkholes, the famous sinkholes that you hear and this problem is increasing. Just the end of January or February this year we closed one of the beaches in Ein Gedi, for example, and we added a new road to cross the area of the sinkholes," said Dov Litvinoff, mayor of the Tamar region that covers the southern half of the Dead Sea in Israel.
"We are facing alot of problems that we cannot face alone, we cannot treat alone, we need the support of the government on these issues".
Relocating infrastructure is a temporary solution, he said. The sinkholes will only stop when the Dead Sea is rehabilitated, and that requires an international initiative, since it also borders Jordan and the West Bank.
Even with everyone on board, he said, it would take decades to reverse the ecological damage to the ancient salt lake, which sits more than 400 metres below sea level, the lowest point on dry land, a basin baking in the blazing heat.
The World Bank is promoting a much-talked-about project to desalinate water from the Red Sea and pump the leftover brine to the Dead Sea, but it is unclear whether it will take off, and environmental groups say it would be a drop in the bucket.
The Dead Sea is a favorite spot for tourists, who enjoy floating effortlessly in its highly salted waters and treating their skin with the mineral-rich mud that lines its shores.
Avi, a resident of Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem who runs the Mineral Beach resort, said the kibbutz suffered major losses after parts of the resort collapsed in sinkholes, forcing them to close the area.
"Mineral beach was the main business of the Kibbutz, it was responsible for 80 percent of the income of the Kibbutz and in the last half year that Mineral beach was closed we had some tragedy in the community, the economy effect and the community effect," Avi said.
It is also supports a huge mining industry. Israel Chemicals (ICL) and Jordan's Arab Potash Company extract minerals like fertilizer potash and flame-retardant bromine for export around the world.
It takes less than an hour to drive the length of the lake, which is linked to the Sea of Galilee in the north by the River Jordan. Eighty years ago it would have been a single, 70 km (43 mile) lake. Today the bottom third has dried up and what is left is kept alive artificially by ICL as evaporation pools.
The main reason the sea is shrinking is because its natural water sources, which flow south through the Jordan river valley from Syria and Lebanon, have been diverted for agriculture and drinking water along the way. Mining operations account for the remaining 30 percent of the deterioration, according to Israel's parliamentary research group.
But sinkholes are not appearing in Jordan where the coast is steeper, said Guy Dunenfeld, head engineer for the Tamar regional council. The Israeli shore is flat, he explained, and waters recede at a much faster pace as a result.
Deep beneath the newly exposed land is a 30-meter layer of salt formed over thousands of years. Without the Dead Sea waters to protect it, fresh water from rain or desert flash floods seep underground and dissolve the salt layer, creating a cavity that eventually collapses, sucking in the ground.
The Geological Survey of Israel has started to monitor small contour shifts in the ground with satellite images that could signal forming sinkholes.
But Dunendeld fears the worst is still to come.
"As long as the level of the sea keeps on deteriorating the situation of the sea it keeps on getting worse. We are seeing the growth of sinkholes accelerating," he said.
"We are standing in the closed resort of Ein Gedi. It used to be a very livefull (lively) place filled with bungalows and tents for tourists and you can see all around you its completely gone. The buildings collapsed into holes, the electricity lights, the sewage, water lines everything simply collapsed and leaving a complete destruction of the area, " Dunendeld added. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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